In the 35+ years that I have been biking I have only once had to call for a ride home because of a problem with my bike. In that case my tire totally split and there was no way to patch it enough to get home. I have had other problems on the road like a broken chain, derailleur failure, broken spoke(s), lost pully wheel and other assorted problems and have always been able to put the bike back to a working condition that would get me home. I'm not as good a mechanic as Jim or Ricky but know enough to fix most problems.
So, when Martin's chain broke on our Wednesday ride, I pulled out my multi-tool which has a chain breaker to see if we could fix the chain. I had a little problem getting the tool aligned to the pin in the chain, but Bob gave it a try and was able to pop the broken link out. He just recently started working at the bike exchange so had more experience and practice than I had. He managed to take out the broken link and put the shorten chain back together on the bike. Martin was then able to get back on the bike and keep going .....
... for about a quarter mile before the chain broke again. Not sure what caused it to break again but it looked like the plate on one of the links bent away from the pin so maybe there was something wrong with the link that was preventing the pin from keeping it together. In any case it was one of the few cases where we had to leave someone behind. It was too bad we couldn't do the fix, but Bob went back and picked him up later so everyone eventually got back. That is one of the advantages with riding in a group if you have a problem the group (usually) has the collective knowledge to get you back on the road and if not, they can at least tell the authorities where the body is.
The multi-tool I have is a Vibrelli V19 and I got this tool because it has a chain breaker. Many years ago my chain broke on a solo ride and because I had a chain break tool, I was able to take the broken link out and put the chain back together and get home. The chain break tool on a multi-tool is only meant for a few uses before the pin or threads wear out. I think it's time to replace my multi-tool with as my current one is about 10 years old and there are probably better ones out there. I may even get a small dedicated chain breaker tool to carry with me because although the chain breaker tool on my multi-tool worked okay it was a little hard to use. The other thing I plan to add to my bike bag is a couple of quick links as that may have made the chain repair a little easier and might have been better than pushing the pin through the existing links.
Although broken chains are a rare occurrence, I like to be prepared for as many possible repairs on the road as I can. That way I have a better chance of finishing the ride no matter what problems I have.
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